AMALGATE, Placer Mining Claim, Cedar Rim, Fremont County, Wyoming

AMALGATE OPAL WMC312365 20 Acre Unpatented Placer Mining Claim on Federal Land Fremont County Wyoming This 20 acre placer claim is located in the precious opal fields up in Cedar Mountain mining district. Opal is rare and when found occurred as secondary vein deposits mixed in common opal. Opal (SiO2.nH2O) in general is a precious to semi-precious stone classified as an amorphous mineraloid with 6 to 10% water. A mineraloid is a mineral-like substance that does not yield an exact chemical formula; and like volcanic glass, shows no sign of crystallinity. Opal has a hardness of 5.5 to 6.5 & is fragile to relatively durable semi-precious gemstone. In general, the higher the water content, the less stable the opal.  Three general categories of opal include: (1) common, (2) fire, & (3) precious. Precious opal is the most valuable. Precious black opal is considered to be the most valuable of the precious opals by gemologists because of an internal color play enhanced against the d